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The Peace Report, Issue #7
By Louise Diamond, Ph.D.
Welcome to The Peace Report, an occasional set of reflections on world and national affairs in these times of change and challenge, as seen through a peace lens.
Building a Culture of Peace Conference a Huge Success
Nearly 500 people gathered in Santa Fe, New Mexico in mid-May to explore the question, ‘What would it take to transform the current culture of violence in our society to a culture of peace?’
To inspire and challenge us, we had four keynote speakers, spread over the two days. Rigoberta Menchu Tum (Nobel Peace Laureate, 1992) opened the conference by speaking of harmony between the material and the spiritual. She told of the Mayan Calendar’s No Time Zone, coming in 2014, when the natural clock will move in one direction and the material in the other, after which there will be a new era of collaboration, coalition, and balance of the masculine and the feminine. To prepare for this, we need to be a light for others, not letting pessimism, bitterness, or too much comfort overtake us. She invited us to be the best example of peace that we can be, and to work from that place for the well-being and dignity of all.
Jody Williams (Nobel Peace Laureate, 1997) shared her own journey to ban landmines as a model for how one person can make a difference. Seeing herself as just an ordinary person, she was exposed to the issue of landmines and the incredible harm they did. As she became motivated to do something about this, she rallied others to the cause, eventually finding and building collaborative networks all over the planet. Fueled by anger and determined to succeed, she did indeed help build a worldwide movement and support that resulted in an international treaty to ban all landmines. Not willing to stop there, Jody said she was turning her attention now to cluster bombs, and after that, to nuclear weapons.
Arun Gandhi (Founder, the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence), took us on an incredible journey of learning about peace from Mahatma Gandhi, through the eyes of himself as a rebellious teenage grandson. In one story after another, we saw and heard Gandhi’s commitment to nonviolence, love, and respect for all beings played out in simple family relationships and everyday events. In one story, young Gandhi cavalierly threw away an old pencil stub, assuming his grandfather would get him a new pencil. Instead he received a teaching about how discarding that pencil was showing disrespect to the earth (all the elements that made up the pencil) and to the people who were involved in making it. He also received a flashlight, to go and retrieve the stub he had tossed aside, as he was not, in fact, going to get a new pencil.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Nobel Peace Laureate 1989), by video, ended the conference by speaking of the need for a culture of peace, especially given the way the media focuses so much on violence. He reminded us that the heart of peace is to recognize we are all one family on this earth, and that we need to care for each other. He acknowledged that transforming the culture of violence to a culture of peace could take a long time, but with perseverance, determination, and hope, it could be accomplished. He invited us each to go out and offer our unique gifts to realize this vision.
In between these talks, six Peace Councils met and discussed a variety of topics. Small groups examined, for instance, the need to build bridges to the military, and to illegal immigrants rather than seeing them as ‘the enemy;’ the difference between indigenous cultures for whom spirituality is integrated into daily life and industrialized cultures where religion tends to be a separate part of life, and the implications of these different perspectives for peace; the importance of bringing spirit into our businesses and economic life and developing new models for corporations that share ownership with employees and build community.
Other groups spoke of creating a statewide peace curriculum; of building on the rich aggregation of scientific and healing skills present in New Mexico to create a new economic base for the state so it doesn’t have to rely so much on the nuclear/military industry, and of funding the nuclear labs to focus instead on alternative energy; of how important art, music, poetry, and even T-shirts are to youth for expressing their views on peace; of how important it is to re-connect with nature in order to remember our unity with all creation; of how to use the new internet modalities to help transform the need for security through power and control to a paradigm of security through mutual collaboration, understanding, empathy, and communication.
And so much more! A fuller report on the conference and its outcomes will be available later this summer. Next steps are still under discussion. We know that further small- and large-group dialogues and working groups are in the picture, and that new projects are emerging. More on this as it becomes solidified.
At the end of the conference, as each of the Peace Councils gave a brief report to the whole assembly on the highlights of their work, we realized that most of all, this two-day gathering of peace leaders (from ages 10 to 84+ and from five continents) was a moment of planting seeds, seeds that will grow, through our continued care and tending, to eventually become that great Tree of Peace that shelters us all.
[And for those of you who follow these things, the peace activists who had threatened to demonstrate against the conference never showed
up.]
Immigration and Peace
The headlines these days are all about the immigration bill that recently failed in Congress. As I’ve watched the rising anger among some about the ‘amnesty’ section of the bill, providing a path to citizenship (albeit a punitive one) to millions who have been in this country productively for many years, I’ve reflected on the seeming increase in xenophobia that has rocked this country since 9/11.
Whether it be about Muslims or Mexicans, we are seeing a reactionary response to ‘the other’ that is both a symptom and an outcome of the politics of fear and separation we have been caught in for so long. There is no surprise here, as white European Americans have historically branded ‘the other’ as dangerous and inferior throughout our national history. Native Americans, African Americans, Chinese, Poles, Jews, Italians, Catholics, Japanese – many peoples have suffered from this kind of hatred in our past.
This harsh response, however, does not serve us. We will always be in close relationship with Mexico, and Muslims and Muslim countries are a significant part of our world. We also do not benefit from even more polarization of our political landscape.
The idea that we can protect our borders by building a wall strikes me as a sad metaphor for the hardness of our hearts and the narrowness of our thinking. We invade Iraq and cause millions of citizens to flee the country for their safety, yet take in only hundreds of Iraqi refugees for resettlement. Their suffering, we say, is not our problem.
We depend on Mexican workers to harvest our crops and run other labor-intensive industries, yet raid those very businesses and put their workers in detention camps (imprisoning their children too, or leaving them abandoned) until deportation. Their suffering, we say, is not our problem.
We imprison young men in Guantanamo Bay unnecessarily for years until we decide they are not, in fact, terrorists, and release them to whatever fate awaits them wherever they may land, though not, of course, in America. Their broken lives, we say, are not our problem.
What is our problem, and a very dangerous one, is the fear that closes our hearts to the misery of others, and the arrogance that keeps us from taking responsibility for the results of our own actions.
The antidote to the fear is compassion. Hizkias Assefa, our Peacebuilders Hall of Fame honoree this month, speaks of even the worst enemies being able to find the points of their common humanity when they look deeply enough. We all share the same feelings and desires; we all come from the same source and carry the same spark of divine humanness; the same life force moves through us all. Compassion is the recognition of this oneness, and the yearning to assuage the suffering of others who are so like ourselves, and with whom we are inextricably (though often invisibly) linked.
I imagine a politics truly based on compassion, not just as a campaign slogan but as love in action. Holding real family values and true caring about the suffering of others, we would not tolerate the mean-spirited treatment our governments, local and national, are now meting out to immigrant families. Holding real belief in the good works of the faith community, we would encourage, not punish, the religious institutions that are providing services to immigrants. Holding an open heart, we would offer an open hand to find real solutions to complex issues, instead of the closed fist of hatred and anger that leads to hardened positions, inflexible demands, and aggressive actions.
I also imagine a politics truly based on accountability, the antidote to arrogance. We are not better than others, not more entitled, not more worthy of a good life because of our national wealth and power. If anything, our wealth and power require us – indeed, provide the blessed opportunity for us – to act humbly in the service of other nations and peoples.
The social contract to care for one another is not limited to our own families, our own state, our own ‘kind.’ For every action we take we are accountable to the whole, for, as Mother Theresa says, ‘We belong to each other.’ Being accountable means we acknowledge the effects of our actions on all parties, and seek to ‘first do no harm.’ We do not blame others for our failings, but instead work together to fix what is not functioning well.
With a politics of compassion and accountability we would not obsess on amnesty as a dirty word, but would look instead for creative ways to honor the contributions legal and illegal immigrants are making to our society; create a legal structure that allows those who have functioned like good citizens to continue their lives in peace (while at the same time not encouraging an increased overflow of people crossing the borders); better manage the existing processes and backlog for immigration; and partner with Mexico to change the conditions that push so many to leave home for a chance at a better life.
We would not denigrate, humiliate, or criminalize those who have come here seeking a small share of our good fortune, but would acknowledge that somehow we have called them here; that in some way we want and need them here; that we created the vacuum that they are filling.
All living systems have boundaries, and need some mechanism for managing their permeability, so that information and energy that keep the system vital and growing can flow both in and out. At the same time, all systems exist within the context or environment of other, larger systems. If the door to that exchange is either totally wide open or slammed shut, the system ultimately breaks down. When we oil the hinge on that door with compassion, it can move incrementally, rather than radically; it can be finely tuned to meet current needs. When we take responsibility for our hand on that door, we realize that there is a hand on the other side as well, and that only together can we best manage the portal for the benefit of all.
Peacebuilders Hall of Fame
There are people all over the world, from many walks of life, whose names we will probably never know and whose achievements we may never hear about, who are making a profound difference for peace. This column will highlight some of these individuals, both to honor them and to inspire and educate the rest of us about what is indeed possible.
We Honor Hizkias Assefa, Ph.D.
Rwanda; Burundi; Sierra Leone; Sudan; Mozambique; Ethiopia; Uganda. All places of violent conflict in Africa. All places where Hizkias Assefa has been involved in peacebuilding, either through political negotiations or community mediations.
For many years Hizkias has been behind the scenes in these and similar situations around the world, bringing his deep spiritual commitment to reconciliation and social justice to formal and informal processes to prevent, resolve, and transform the violence. A core focus of his work is to help the parties touch the deep core of their oneness. He says, in an interview earlier this year with Wajibu, a Kenya-based Journal of Social and Religious Concern:
… if one is allowed to work with the parties step by step and layer by layer, it is possible to get them to meet at a deep level when they recognize the humanity of each other and recognize that their commonalities are much greater than their differences. And based on that they can have the vision, fortitude and mutual tolerance to work towards peace and reconciliation.
He goes on to speak of his understanding of the spiritual nature of peacebuilding, and the need for the mediator to engage in their own inner transformational work as well:
Mediation and reconciliation work is about a profound quest for justice and social transformation. But at the same time, they are about service, solidarity, about exploring and rediscovering the human spirit that has been lost or shattered through human conflict, cruelty, ignorance and greed…
It is when we come to recognize that we are as fallible and vulnerable as the protagonists but have had the good fortune of not being caught up in such difficult circumstances that we are able to place ourselves in the shoes of the adversaries and begin to understand their fears, needs and confusions. By so doing we become a bridge of understanding between the enemies.
After decades of immersion in some of the most vicious conflicts and unfathomable suffering of our times, does Hizkias still have hope for a world of peace?
What my experience has taught me is that regardless of how complicated the problems might appear, it is possible to work through them and find solutions that are mutually satisfactory to every stakeholder in the problem… most of our problems on this earth are created by us and therefore we have the capacity and the obligation to unmake them.
In addition to his mediation work, Hizkias is Professor of Conflict Studies at the Center for Justice and Peacbebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia and was formerly Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He is also currently a Senior Special Fellow at the United Nations Institute of Training and Research in Geneva. He co-ordinates the Africa Peacebuilding and Reconciliation Resources located in Nairobi, Kenya, which is the base for his mediation and reconciliation practice. Hizkias is also the author of several books on peacebuilding.
Great gratitude, Hizkias, for your presence and practice of peace in our world, and for all the lives and hearts you have touched with the blessing of your work.
Hummingbird Recommends
The hummingbird is considered by some Native American peoples to be a messenger of The Peacemaker, the man who helped bring peace to the warring nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (the principles of which became the basis of our own constitution). As one who can show us the deep recesses where the sweet nectar of peace resides, the hummingbird is a true peace leader in these times, and I have respectfully borrowed her name for this column.
There is an often-invisible field of peace music out there, and Stephen Longfellow Fiske is one of its top voices. The 11 songs on his Earth Anthem CD (can we still say ‘album’ these days?’) are interesting for both their music and their lyrics.
The sound – sometimes lively, sometimes reflective, and sometimes soaring – comes out of the folk tradition, with guitar and single voice as the primary instruments, backed by some keyboard, string, percussion and light vocal support. That makes for consistency while at the same time offering a uniqueness to each selection that keeps our interest. But most importantly, it puts the emphasis where it belongs, on Stephen’s voice and vision, and on the heart and soul in his music.
Stephen’s lyrics are most inspiring to me. He has put new words to the tune of The Star-Spangled Banner in the title cut, Earth Anthem:
O, say can we see
By the one light in all
Our Earth to embrace
At the call of all nations
Where our children can play
In a world without war
Where we stand hand in hand
In the grace of creation
Where the rivers run clean
Through the forests of green
Where the cities stand tall in the clear skies of freedom
O, say do our hearts sing
For harmony and love forever
On the planet of our birth
Blessed with peace on Earth
And he reprises that final stanza at the end of the CD with the Earth Anthem Peace Chant, brining in peace chants from many cultures (my favorite).
His songs are direct invitations to the listener. He invites us to reach out to each other, building Bridges of Love. He encourages us to go Deep Down Inside to find that place where we are one, and to Know them now, sow them now, Seeds of Peace.
Stephen celebrates the one web of life in We Are One; he exhorts us to action in Peacemakers and Picture Window; and he makes a powerful prayer in One Voice.
Stephen has other CD’s as well, and a book, The Art of Peace. You can learn more and order this and his other products at www.earthanthem.com. And do spread the word. Imagine how wonderful our world would be with this music and more like it filling our airwaves instead of what we now hear when we turn on the radio! May Earth Anthem be the top hit on every iPod!
Interesting Peace Web Sites
Leaders from these organizations participated in the recent Building a Culture of Peace conference in New Mexico. Working for peace at the personal, community, and international levels, these organizations are but a small sample of the wonderful things so many individuals and organizations are accomplishing for a more peaceful world.
www.healfoundation.org
Healthy human relationships are the center and the ground of peace, and the heart of the work of Heal Foundation. Through workshops, training, peace and cultural awareness circles, public speaking, and other services, Heal Foundation helps grow those healthy relationships for positive change, conflict resolution, community building, and addressing social issues. Their founder, Stephan McLaughlin, has a new book out called Seeking Self, all about the inner journey to healthy relationships. This is indeed where peace begins.
www.tewawomenunited.org
Tewa Women United is a women-centered and Native women-run non-profit organization located within the Northern Pueblos of New Mexico. Women’s empowerment; harmony with Mother Earth; union of spirit, heart, and mind; addressing challenging questions of community life – please go to this website and read especially their Vision statement and their Programs, to see and feel the richness and beauty of this organization. Indigenous wisdom has a vital part to play in bringing humanity to right relationship in these days, and this organization is serving that purpose through inspiration and direct action.
www.globalsolutions.org
Citizens for Global Solutions is a grassroots educational and advocacy organization with wide-ranging interests in and action regarding the critical issues of our day. Its mission: To build political will in the United States to achieve our vision. We do this by educating Americans about our global interdependence, communicating global concerns to public officials, and developing proposals to create, reform, and strengthen international institutions such as the United Nations. Energy, international law and justice, torture, Darfur, peace and security – these are only some of the issues CGS is addressing. Check this out to see the power of what can happen when we dedicate our collaborative action to finding solutions for shared problems.
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